Sony scotches rumours of early PS3 launch

A report in Taiwan's Commercial Times
claiming that Sony was in talks with manufacturing companies to
begin production of PS3 consoles with a view to a 2003 launch has
been categorically denied by the company.

The newspaper story had claimed that Taiwanese parts suppliers,
including current PS2 assembler Hon Pai Precision Industry, would
be starting trial production of the PS3 next month, and that the
first units would ship in Japan by the middle of the year - in an
effort by Sony to capture more of the market by gaining a two year
lead over its competitors next products.

Although the rumour was reported by several reputable news sources,
its credibility wasn't exactly high in the first place - and a Sony
spokesperson in Tokyo finally culled the story, pointing out that
"decisions regarding the name, specifications, pricing and launch
date of our next console haven't even been finalized yet." Perhaps
more importantly, the CELL chip which will power the PS3 is barely
out of the design stages and won't be mass-manufactured for a long
time yet.

However, if you believe the maxim that there's no smoke without
fire, one does have to wonder what those Taiwanese companies are
actually doing. Perhaps they're engaged in one of Sony's periodic
rethinks of its console internals - generally cost-cutting measures
such as integrating more and more chips onto single dies - or could
it be that Sony, like Microsoft, is planning to redesign its
console in a move similar to the relaunch of the PlayStation as the
PSone?